Bill Bradley on Crime

2000 Democratic Primary Challenger for President

Police in Daillo shooting judged based on race

Q: Comments on racial profiling? A: The first thing I’d do is make the Voting Rights Act permanent. Racial profiling is a deep and serious issue. It’s whether we can see deeper than skin color or an eye shape, an ethnicity, to the individual.
The Amadou Diallo case [showed] how deeply racial profiling had seeped into the mind of those who were in the police department. a wallet in the hands of a black man would look like a gun.

Source: Democrat debate in Los Angeles
, Mar 1, 2000

Additional penalties for hate crimes based on race or gender

BRADLEY [to Gore]: There is an anti-hate crime bill pending before the Texas Legislature. It was a hate crime bill in the wake of the James Byrd murder and the Matthew Shepard murder and it said that there will be additional penalties for hate crimes
based on race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. And the governor of Texas let it be known he did not want to see that bill come forward. I told the governor’s press corps that if I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party and he’s the nominee of
the Republican Party, and he has failed to support this legislation, that I would make it an issue in the presidential campaign and I will.

GORE: I think it will be an issue in the presidential campaign and it should be. I met two weeks ago with Judy
Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard. What suffering that family went through when that young man was crucified on a split-rail fence by bigots. Yes, we need hate crimes legislation. Those crimes are fundamentally different.

No mandatory sentencing for first-time minor drug offenders

GORE: [Regarding race-biased sentencing], the disparities between crack & powder cocaine are not justified by the scientific evidence. The practices of many law-enforcement agencies need to be changed.

BRADLEY: The issue of the criminal justice system
is deeper than simply the death penalty. There is unequal justice in this country, not only racial profiling, not only crack cocaine, but also in terms of kids getting mandatory sentences for first-time non-violent drug use and being put away 20 years.
That should not happen.

GORE: We should review of the kinds of penalty that are calculated under the [policy of] “three strikes and you’re out.” The focus ought to be on truly violent crime. We need to continue reducing the crime rate, and community
policing is a good strategy. But we also need more prevention.

BRADLEY. This is a deeper moral issue for the country. We have to stop denying the plight of black Americans and the indignities that they’re experiencing.

Federal law should address racial profiling

Q: How would you keep crime down, but at the same time confront the problem of police brutality and racial profiling? A: I would issue an executive order that would eliminate racial profiling at the federal level. I would try to pass a law to get
information gathered at local levels so that we can see how the police departments are acting. I would make sure that the Justice Department was involved and would say quite clearly that white Americans can no longer deny the plight of black Americans.

Source: Democrat debate in Harlem, NYC
, Feb 21, 2000

Combat terrorism with broad inter-agency approach

Q: How do you plan to address terrorist threats? A: [We need] an approach to terrorism that is across the board. It has to include the best intelligence in the world. It has to include a response if terrorism takes place, going after them
wherever they are. It must also include a degree of honesty with the American people. But the key thing is to make sure that the government is organized in a way that you get support among all agencies aimed at countering terrorism.

Source: Town Hall Meeting, Nashua NH
, Dec 18, 1999

Urban future: transform; or we’ll abandon or encircle

I have often felt that the future of urban America will take one of three paths: abandonment, encirclement, or transformation.

Abandonment means recognizing that, with the growth of suburbia, the city may have outlived its usefulness. The city,
some say, will wither and disappear.

Encirclement means that people in a city will live in separate enclaves. The racial and ethnic walls will go higher. What will be lost for everyone will be freedom, civility, and the chance to build a common future

Transformation means winning over all segments of urban life to a new politics of common effort. Answers won’t come only from the elite who determine what the new society will look like. Instead, the future will be shaped in large part by the
people from inside the turmoil of urban America. Transformation requires listening to the disaffected and the powerful alike.

Answer to crime is local, not federal

The Federal Crime Bill of 1994 was a fine piece of work.... Still, it dealt directly with only those 5% of the crimes committed that violate federal law. The answer to crime will be found closer to home. What Washington can do is call for a rebellion
against violence and measure its progress. Joining together as citizens to stop violence requires us to see beyond color to self-interest furthered by civic action.

Source: Time Present, Time Past, p. 391
, Jan 8, 1997

Wiretap & deport suspected terrorists; use taggants

Voting record on terrorism issues:

Voted IN FAVOR of funding a study of the use of tracing elements (taggants) in black powder and smokeless powder (HR 3756, 9/12/96)

Voted YES to expand deportation of criminal aliens and suspected terrorists;
allow suspected terrorists to be denied asylum; and prohibit terrorist groups from fundraising in the US (S 735, 4/17/96)

Voted YES to make it easier for law enforcement to do anti-terrorism wiretaps. (S 735, 6/6/95)

Source: Project Vote Smart -- Voting Record
, Sep 12, 1996

Try teens as adults, but no death penalty

Voting record on juvenile justice issues:

Voted IN FAVOR of prohibiting the death penalty for crimes committed when an individual is under the age of 18. (S 1607, 11/19/93)

Voted YES to allow armed offenders 13 years or older to be prosecuted
as adults for federal crimes. (S 1607, 11/5/93)

Source: Project Vote Smart -- Voting Record
, Nov 19, 1993

Voted in favor of death penalty & against appeals

Voting record on death penalty issues:

Voted IN FAVOR of placing on the DC ballot a provision for a federal death penalty for first-degree murders in the District of Columbia (HR 5517, 7/30/92)

Voted NO to replacing the death penalty with life
imprisonment for some crimes. (S 1607, 11/17/93)

Voted AGAINST making it harder for prisoners given death penalty in state courts to appeal in federal courts (S 1657, 11/17/93)

Voted NO on repealing federal speed limits.

Voted NO on rejecting racial statistics in death penalty appeals.

Vote to express that the Omnibus Crime bill [H.R. 3355] should reject the Racial Justice Act provisions, which would enable prisoners appealing death penalty sentences to argue racial discrimination using sentencing statistics as part of their appeal.